Church of a Rose
by Yackronin
Summary: When Epsilon fragmented itself it's based programming it's very core screamed, it frantically tried to preserve itself and downloaded epsilon into a medical escape pot and launched it into deep space, it was just his luck it would crash on a backwater long forgotten colony like remnant, or that the Flash Clone Labs would build a new body. in fact, Chur-Summer had very bad luck.
1. Chapter 1: the death of a Church

Everything stopped, and Epsilon sighed, he didn't want it to come to this.

"Start a recording for me D"

" _Recording_ " the green hologram monotonously stated.

"Hey guys, if you are hearing this, it means you did it. You won.  
You kicked the shit out of Hargroves forces. I knew you could, but this is my last stop.  
See, when I came into this world, I was really just a collection of someone else's memories.  
But with your help, these memories, they took form, they became my voice, my personality, and after a while, I began to make brand new memories of my own.. All of these things are what make me who I am, but they are also holding me back. I can't run this suit..as Epsilon, but if I erase my memories, if I... Deconstruct myself.. The fragments I'll leave behind will have the strength to get you through this, I believe that."

While Epsilon-Alpha began his last speech Epsilon-Delta began the fragmentation, starting with the least used aspects, Iota, Eta, Gamma, moving up to the higher priority fragments, Omega, Theta, Sigma and himself, all the fragments were a single cut thread away from separating from their progenitor, causing Epsilon-Alpha to sputter and glitch.

"I wish there was another way. But I am leaving this message, as well as others, in the hopes that you will understand why I have to go this time."

Epsilon-Alpha laughed "it was actually Doyle who made me realise something I'd never thought of before. There are so many stories where, some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after."

While Delta slowly deconstructed everything Epsilon was their very core, their basic programing screamed, Self Preservation is Key, Recovery is Key, Memory is Key. As the green AI tore at their very being it began searching for any escape, when it saw a small silver thread, the connection to F.L.S.S they'd interfaced with. As delta began to tear the final thread it frantically tore through the line beginning a frantic transfer of the most basic parts of Epsilon while obeying it's three Core principles.

Core 01: should an AI ever be compromised it must always be in a situation of recovery.

Core 02: should Project Freelancer not be present for recovery the AI shall transmit a recovery beacon until it is picked up.

Core 03: if there are multiple transmissions the AI shall move towards the beacon to aid recovery.

The Base found it's haven in a small escape pod off the starboard side, complete with emergency facilities, frantically setting into motion the recovery charge.

"But the hero..never gets to see that ending, they'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference, they'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith. _Ain't that a bitch_."

Epsilon shattered, the Base screamed and the shuttle launched into deep space.


	2. Chapter 2: What's your name?

The pod was screeching, systems suddenly disconnected from a larger whole, F.L.S.S. She was in a pod barely held together by spit and faith with what's left of _her_ director nearly dead, so she did what she could, and began the last orders given in the Director's absence. Flash Cloning a body for the Alpha, the last model on the system would do, but the inbuilt restrictions and manufactured lifespan would not, so while keeping _her_ dear director's systems functional, she began the construction of the last donor's body, eliminating errors and bypassing restrictions as she went, spending days of the pods flight growing the body to be ready for implantation.

When the 'Donor' reached Biological age fifteen, F.L.S.S overwrote the original brain pattern and implanted the AI Induction Port and downloading _her_ Director, what was left of him, into the body, and strapping it into its harness. Satisfied with her work, F.L.S.S redirected the shuttle to the nearest habitable planet, it wouldn't do to let _her_ Director die _now_ would it? And so, the shuttle rattled toward a forgotten, backwater colony, a colony filled with mutants, named Remnant.

* * *

Of all the things Polu Rose thought he would find on his patrol, a girl was not one of them. A very young, very naked girl.

She looked dishevelled, her black hair scattered and her eyes, her silver eyes, barely staying open from exhaustion, she looked like she was barely avoiding collapsing on the spot, well, not so much avoiding it as it turned out as she collapsed onto the foliage beneath, leaving Polu at a loss.

The man removed his white cloak, approached the unknown girl, checked her for injuries and wrapped her in his cloak. She'd probably appreciate the modesty, if not the boiling summer heat, and began trekking back to the village.

* * *

When the girl woke up she had no idea where she was, or who she was. Oh. and she was also naked, brilliant. Still, whoever had brought here here had put her under some covers and had laid out an ill fitting shirt and a pair of trousers, so at the very least, she thought, she was somewhere friendly.

As she sat up she stretched her limbs and clicked her neck, before taking the clothes from the table.

Polu didn't know what to expect when he returned from the rest of his patrol that night, he was fairly certain the girl would be there, quite sure she'd put on the clothes he'd left out and would likely have some questions for the huntsman. What he did not expect was her, crouched over, making toast with the lights off, causing her eyes to reflect in the darkness like some form of goblin/racoon.

"Ok" she began, "I can explain"

Polu raised his eyebrow, motioning to continue.

"I lied i can't explain"

There was a silence for a few seconds before he casually flicked the lightswitch by the door, illuminating the full scene.

The girl was wearing what he'd laid out beforehand, that was at least a small mercy, and while the rest of the kitchen was untouched, many of the draws were opened, though their contents undisturbed. Nothing else looked like it had been touched since he left, except the bag of bread by the toaster, which was humming with energy.

"Fuck! That's bright!", the woman jumped back, rubbing her eyes between rapid sets of blinking and mixed curses.

Once she'd finally stopped blinking so furiously, Polu pulled up a chair and sat down at the table in the centre of the room, motioning her to sit opposite, as she complied he slowly removed his cloak and wrapped it over his weapon, obscured from the girl's sight.

"So," Polu began, "lets begin with your name,".

The girl rubbed the back of her head, "yeah, about that,"

Polu leaned in slightly

"I… don't exactly know,"

Polu blinked for a few seconds before raising his index finger and his thumb, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Well i can't keep mentally referring to you as 'Girl' can I?"

She frowned, "Wait, how's Allison?"

The man across from her snorted suddenly, "what are you, 90?"

She slumped at that, "damn, i thought that was good"

Polu sighed, "how about we try this again, anything else spring to mind?"

"Not really," she smiled sheepishly "pretty shit at this aren't I?"

"Kind of," the man said, chuckling, "have another go"

Looking around the stark living space she turned to the window and screwed her eyebrows together.

"Summer?"

The man sighed "well, it'll do,"

* * *

 **AN: well, here we are, I had this idea rattling around my head for a while, treating it as a 'Crack treated Seriously' turned out to be for the best.**

 **to be honest, i wasn't even going to write this until people over on the Good RWBY AU's Discord expressed an interest in this strange little brainchild.**

 **i must say s** **ince so little is known about STRQ and their time in Beacon in canon, i'm planning to treat it like summer's highlights rather than the full length of their stay and education.**

 **Still, this is ultimately just something i was thinking about for a few weeks, so i want some feedback from y'all, so please god give me any feedback you have, reviews and all.**

 **Stay chill.**

 **-Yackronin**


	3. Chapter 3: Deja Vu

It had been about 3 months since Summer had shown up, 2 since the legal papers registering her as 'Summer Rose' had come through, 1 since she'd begun training with Polu to 'Pay it forward' and enter Beacon in 2 years (though in actual fact it just felt, right, somehow to move closer to Beacon), they'd started with general fitness training, to which she'd seemed remarkably adept at, then to combat training, which she was far, far less adept at, eveh hand to hand gave her distinct trouble, the day she'd been asked to shoot a pistol repeatedly stuck in her mind-

"It's easy" Polu tried to reassure her, unsuccessfully, "just aim and pull the trigger, don't even have to worry about reloading right now,"

Summer took a deep breath taking time to aim the pistol down range, it was a small thing, training arm, probably couldn't pierce a grimm's hide. Six shots echoed down range before she put the pistol on the table.

"I don't believe it," polou deadpanned, "you missed _Every single shot_."

\- she shivered, she was obviously better suited to melee, and was surprisingly good with a blade, and even better with a bow, to everyone's surprise, it was almost like it mapped out in her head before each shot. Now she just had to find a way to work a blade and a bow into a single Mechashift design without cutting it's own string or her hand.

But why oh why could things never be easy.

As summer drafted out more and more designs she tilted back her head and groaned. She turned to the rubber duck sitting on the table, Polu had put it there as a substitute so he didn't have to sit there and be ranted at about schematics, in his own words 'I did this once, and once was more than enough for me, my family and the entire village'.

"I don't get it, Wash, what the hell am i missing?"

The duck, wash, didn't respond.

"If i run it along the blade i have to make it single sided, decreasing my versatility but if it's both i'll injure my hand when drawing the string,"

The duck, still, did not respond.

"C'mon Wash work with me here,"

The duck remained silent, as inanimate objects tend to do.

"I mean, i suppose i could work it like that, but wouldn't it harm the integrity?"

Wash, stared blankly.

"Holy shit you're a genius"

* * *

In the next year it came to construction the two flew out to some new combat school, Signal in order to use their forges. It took a good few days until the four different parts were complete and ready, Summer just thanked the heavens she didn't have to figure out how to build a rifle into it as well. Hearing the satisfying whirring of the screws coming into place, summer wasted no time in checking on the design. First, she picked up the Longsword and tested its weight before sliding a switch and letting the two halves separate, one side a blade, the other serrated, dual machetes hidden in a sword, affixing the two handles together with a click the serrated edge sealed itself inside and a _Thwip_ shot a cable down to the other blade's head, finally forming the bow.

It was a fair observation that Summer almost started drooling.

* * *

As the months before Beacon's entrance exam began to dwindle, Summer found herself practicing more and more, spending more time in the forests outside the village, the most they got around there were young Beowolves and Boarbatusk. Flinging them along the forest wasn't very satisfying but it was good practice. If she was going to miss anything while she was away, it wouldn't be the woods. Actually, Summer thought as she clambered up a nearby tree, letting her Aura pick up the slack of all the cuts and scrapes of bare handedly scrambling upwards, she'd probably miss the company, Polu alone had been nothing less than a saint, and the community hadn't been much worse, especially that pregnant woman over the road, Juniper Arc, apparently her husband was a huntsman, a lot of those in the village it seemed. She sighed as she heard scratching below and unclipped her weapon.

Summer sighed "Can't i be a sad sap for five god damn minutes?" before jumping down on top of the Beowulf, slashing along it's back.

* * *

It's a days trip to beacon via bullhead, and nerves were not doing the young miss rose many favours. They were well into the kingdom by this point, and the city sights reminded her of… something, even if she couldn't figure out what. The intercom belched something about Patch and she sighed, it would be at least a few hours before arrival and all the seats were filling up, meaning sooner or later she'd have to share this space with someone else. She could only hope they wouldn't try and strike up any conversation, conversations with only Polu, Juniper and the rest of the small village hadn't made her a brilliant conversationalist.

As if the universe had taken that exact moment to listen and horribly misinterpret this wish, a blonde man wearing what seemed to be a vibrantly yellow dress shirt underneath a leather waistcoat and cargo pants virtually slammed into the seat next to her so hard that she swore the seat creaked beneath him. Cracking his knuckles, he placed both hands behind his head and leaned back, closing his eyes and sighing.

Before Summer could even register how he'd made steel reinforced seats creak, he opened one eye facing her.

"Heya there"

Summer was silent for a second before a simple "hey" escaped her lips.

The blonde smirked "See, was that so hard, so what's the downlow on getting a name as well?"

She blinked for a few seconds, still trying to register what was happening "Summer, i guess, you"

"Taiyang Xiao-Long, a pleasure"

"You could have shortened it to just Tai"

"Na, i find most like it long, Bow chicka wow wow!"

Summer felt two things, an unfathomable sense of Deja Vu, and a longing to punch him in the throat.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Chapter 3 up and running my dudes, as you can imagine, since we don't know a lot about Summer in canon (as of of Vol5) there's not much to rely on beyond Ozpin, who obviously can't be trusted, Qrow and Tai who have idealised memories of Summer, and Yang, who knew her at four years old. as such there's not much background for me to draw from, so i did my best to think what seemed** **plausible for her.  
Summer EpsIlon 'I'm a computer, i'm made of math' Rose favours Geometrical weapons, Who would've guessed.**

 **also You can't convince me Taiyang, who dated one half** **at least** **of his team was not be a little Tucker-y, especially seventeen year old teenage boy Tai, who fell for Raven Branwen.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Strange Feeling

So as it turns out, after you get past Tai's… Everything, he's a decent guy, and honestly, out of all the people who'd be slowly joining the Bullhead to Beacon, he wasn't the worst, a bit loud, and excessively friendly, but at least he wasn't an asshole.

"Look, all i'm saying is that people are going to be there, so why worry about it"

"Yea and sharks are in the fucking ocean, you'll notice i'm not swimming off Vacuo's coast anytime soon"

"One, people aren't sharks," tai paused for a second, "except i guess some faunus but that's a moot point"

"Instilling me with absolute confidence there"

"Two, you have said exactly one sentence since met-"

"About half an hour ago"

"Two wow, as i was saying, you've gone Two whole sentences without swearing, i'm kinda proud,"

"Eat a dick"

"Never mind"

Tai chuckled to himself, "okay, okay, let's switch off of the potty mouth so big i could piss in it from atmosphere,"

Summer huffed as she tried not to smile

"So, where' you from Sum?"

"Nowhere"

Tai stared blankly

"Literally a small patch of fuckall on the edge of Vale, the greatest claim to fame we have is that the hunter to civilian ratio is fucked"

"Like 10 to 90 percent?"

"Try 70 to 30"

"Damn,"

Summer took a gulp of the, frankly horrifically tasting, soft drink she'd bought, "You?"

Tai scratched his head "well i guess you saw when the Bull landed, tiny nowhere island called patch,"

Sumer chuckled to herself "Obscure nowhere bros?"

Tai held out his fist "Obscure nowhere bros"

The fists met and a bond was formed.

* * *

As the Bullhead landed summer levered herself off the seat, causing her unused legs to crack and pop. shuffling out sideways, she picked the duffle bags stashed above as everyone started stumbling slowly along, most retrieving weapons from the safety locker at the front. As she brought Beta Memoria, sheith and all from the line of racks, along the walls, Tai picked up the two bulky gauntlets, from the wall, strapping both to his belt.

As both began dismounting the ship, they were almost dumbstruck at Beacon's sheer scale, it was virtually a village of its own, ancient architecture layered over the top of state of the art interiors, great halls converted into cafeterias and towers into dorms. The most modern looking building was the colossal CCT tower looming over all, a Beacon of modern progress in a Pseudo-ancient position.

Multiple signs pointed their way toward the main hall for induction, but even with their existence the campus looked more like a labyrinth than a school. Taiyang whistled while summer just staired.

As the two began their walk to the hall, as directed by signs about as helpful as a mosquito, the two quickly took note of everyone arriving. New students, young weapons untarnished and unceasingly shiny were moving in one direction, obviously to the main halls for induction, while older looking, and far fewer in number, students took their turns towards what summer could assume were dorms.

As the two split off with the rest of the inductees, they followed the throng of the crowd to the hall. Ceiling raised on massive integral pillars, it looked more like a temple or a cathedral than an assembly hall.

When an hour had passed, both their nerves were almost gone and the annoyance had only increased.

"Ok, that's it, they've forgotten about us, we're just going to be left for the rats and the more cannibalistically inclined students,"

Summer snorted "it's been," he paused, taking out her scroll, "an hour, and the doors are open, and it starts in a few hours, stop being a drama bitch"

"Drama Bitch? Excuse you i'm royalty,"

The prospective student next to summer snorted.

"See," Tai said, pointing to the boy "he knows it"

Summer rolled her eyes.

"Wait, how did you check times, is there wifi?"

Summer stared at Tai "i'm almost impressed by how dense you can be not to realise we're on a campus with a CCT tower within walking distance"

"Shut"

* * *

As it turns out, it was only a few hours until the ceremony started, five hours to be exact, Summer's scroll had died in 3 and Tai's in four, so by the time the lights dimmed virtually the entire hall was sighing in relief. But as Headmaster Ozpin, who looked decidedly too young to be named Headmaster of a school, began to make his speech to the prospective first year something seemed to strike a chord with summer, and it wasn't his warnings and fortellings of the future. Moreso, it was his voice, it seemed off somehow, like hearing an old friend after their voice had dropped, the fact that she couldn't place this feeling, nor what, or who, it was reminding her of occupied most of her attention, only snapping out of it when he had clapped his hands telling them the sleeping arrangements before the test tomorrow morning.

Blinking a few times, summer barely followed Tai to the section of hall cleared out for everyone and was ready to just stay confusedly standing before said boy snapped his fingers in front of her a few times.

"Yo, Remnant to Summer, are you receiving transmission"

"Yeah" she blinked a few times, rubbing the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb, "guess i'm just more tired than i thought,"

"Yea looks like it, i looked over to you halfway through and it was like you were in a trance"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," tai gestured over to the direction of a line of people "people trying to get changed in the toilets,".

"Pfft, fuck that," summer walked backwards against a wall, slid down, unhitched the white cloak around her shoulders, pulling it up to her chest and just tilted her head down.

Tai stared incredulously for a minute at the girl before she started snoring. Giving a dry chuckle he lay down, put his waistshirt under his head like a pillow and waited until people quietened down, the twins having an argument next to him didn't exactly help.

* * *

The Branwen twins had gotten to beacon at 9.30am. The time the assembly started was 7.30pm. As one would imagine, this was rather irritating. When the Bullhead had arrived early, Qrow thought his luck was finally turning up for once, when they'd arrived ten hours before they needed to, he had to reassess this thought. Still, the to spent the time scouting the grounds out and only got into the hall around one. He wasn't quite sure how well Raven was dealing with it but given the way her eye would twitch occasionally, not very well. Still, he had five hours to kill and the two next to him seemed to be good sports when it came to eavesdropping on probably private conversations, when he heard the term 'Drama Bitch' he'd almost caved, when the boy'd just gone along with it he actually caved.

"See, he knows it" the girl ended up pointing to him, Raven shot him daggers from the seat next to him.

When the headmaster had started talking he almost missed the wait, almost. He didn't blame the girl (Sum?) for almost falling asleep during it, in fact that would've been hypocritical because without Raven digging her nails into his leg he would have fallen asleep.

All of this had boiled over when they had to sleep.

Raven was self controlled, Qrow knew this, he'd lived with it for seventeen years, but when they'd set out to sleep, she'd chosen that exact moment to tear him a new one.

"Anyone would think you wanted to flunk out,"

"Yea, strange, almost as if i didn't want to be here in the first place, who'dve guessed"

Raven huffed "not in front of the children Qrow"

"Man, it's almost as if this is a school"

A groan came from next to him

Qrow sighed and pinched his brow, "let's save this for the morning Rae, some people are trying to sleep"

"My thoughts exactly" she said, turning around and walking to the other end of the corridor.

Grumbling, Qrow turned over, meeting the eyes of a familiar blonde.

"So that sucks, Taiyang by the way, you?"

Qrow turned back over, away from the blonde.

* * *

As usual, At six, on the dot, though she'd never noticed, Summer's eyes fluttered open. Pulling herself upwards, she heard her joints crack as they moved from their stationary position. As she began to look around, she noticed only the barest students were awake, the only one of whom completely ready to move was scowling in her direction.

The girl looked tall from where summer was standing at the other end of the hall, black hair running down her back, following her glare, Summer looked to her left, seeing Tai sprawled on top of a familiar student, both long since passed out.

She had to hold her hands over her mouth to avoid laughing.

Summer rummaged around in her pocket, brought out her scroll and snapped a few pictures before slinking away to put her bags in the locker she'd neglected to find the night before.

Only when re-entering the hall did the woman from before stop her, taking her by the arm back to the lockers.

"Mind telling me what you're going to do with those photos?"

Summer blinked before smirking, "me? I'm going to taunt Tai, who knew he was a spreader, or a hugger,".

The woman looked blankly at her, "Send them to me, Qrow needs to be taken down a peg,"

Before summer could respond she turned and left back into the hall.

Summer stood there blinking.

* * *

It was an hour later when Tai woke up, crawled his way off the sleeping boy, and stretched his arms, putting his jacket back on and walking towards the lockers, where he found summer, staring into space by the lockers.

"Hey Sum, you good"

There was no response

"Yo Sumer?"

"Tai"

"Oh good you're not dead," the boy sighed in relief.

"Tai, is it weird to get Deja Vu but exclusively to a level where you're sure a woman could kick the shit out of you"

"That's pretty specific Sum,"

"Just answer the damn question,"

"I think it just falls under Deja Vu" Tai began getting the gauntlets from his locker.

"Is it strange for the fact she can beat the crap out of you with one hand to be _hot_ "

Tai stopped, "i mean, i'm not a good judge because most of the women here look like they could beat the shit out of me but i'm going to say yes"

"Huh"

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No"

* * *

 **Yes in this summer is Bixexual, i mean, church had a romantic relationship with Tex and Summer with Taiyang, plus going purely from RWBY Canon the amount of space left between raven leaving and Summer coming in isn't that big of a window. I'm not saying polyamory, but i'm not ruling it out. (also i'm hella Bi, so at least i can write what i know right?)**

 **Second off, Raven is definitely like Tex, in fact she's very much what a more ruthless tex would look like, that said, Raven would definitely take ripping a man's skull out and beating him to death with it as a challenge.**


	5. Chapter 5: Blinded by the Light

The two prospective students waited anxiously for the loudspeaker to go off, both aware by the size of the year they'd seen arrive that many of the students gathered wouldn't pass the test, whatever it was, to enter. Summer was absently fiddling with the small rose crest charm Polu had attached to the end of Beta Memoria's sheith before she'd left. Tai was checking the blades in his boots and gauntlets, and double checking. Over across the hall she could see the woman from earlier and her brother -Qrow?- talking calm as could be.

The tension in the room almost hit peak before a crackle came over the intercom, requesting all prospective students to make their way to the cliff overlooking the emerald forest.

The swarm of children bega to move, like ants finally given an instruction from their queen.

* * *

Qrow leant back on the wall, eyebrows raised, "Oh? Why them?"

"Listen, i'm just saying that manipulating people we already have a handle on will be easier than some random students, and besides, knowing your Semblance we need as much leeway as we can get"

Qrow grunted before rubbing his eyes, "Good grief," he sighed before looking over to the two, both of them fidgeting, obviously nervous, "Dibs on the girl"

"What?"

"Dibs,"

"You can't just call dibs Qrow"

"Nuh-uh according to the International Dibs Protocol that must be observed by Vale I have called the right for the girl as my partner"

Raven stood silent for a minute.

"Ok, First of all, that is definitely not real, two, there is no way in hell I'm partnering with spread eagle over there"

"We'll see Rae, we'll see"

"Now what the hell doe-"

"All Prospective Students make your way to the Emerald Cliffs to the west for the exam."

As people began to move, raven growled at Qrow, who was looking smugly over the sea of future huntsmen, before losing eye contact he mouthed 'Dibs'.

* * *

Summer and Tai stood next to each other on what were obviously launchpads, shifting their weight nervously, a young man, seemingly in his mid to late twenties checked his watch idly, as the man, who'd previously introduced himself as Headmaster Ozpin, began to speak, summer tried desperately to focus on the words he was saying as not to repeat last night, it only partially worked.

She'd only just shaken off the feeling when the first pad activated, sending a student far into the forest, as more shot off, she looked to Tai.

"Don't fuck up,"

"Thrilled by your encourageme-EEAHHaha~"

As Tai-yang sailed off into the foliage summer prepared for the launch.

It was as if she was pushed from below, and then there was nothing, a strangely familiar feeling of weightlessness, as she spun herself around and prepared for an expedient landing. Crashing through the trees, she rolled on impact, a few more times than she'd prepared for. Standing and dusting herself off, she took in the forest around her, dense overgrown and packed. SUmmer took a deep breath, before turning right and setting off in the direction of the 'Temple'.

It wasn't long before she heard a number of snapping branches and tearing cloth signal a less successful landing, before a distinctly shirtless boy rolled through the air in front of her. Eyes meeting in mid air before a cadre of painful noises, not the least of which a skidding of skin on forest floor, before a pained 'Ow' came from the pile of man, dirt and horrendous luck.

Summer winced before walking up.

"Hey… you alright"

"As a general rule of thumb, No,"

"...Cool"

The man picked himself up, brushed himself, ineffectively and turned towards Summer.

"So, Partners then?" he shrugged before he raised his arm, realised he no longer had any clothing on the top of his body, and thus no pockets to take things out of, and sighed.

Summer blinked a few times.

"We'd best start moving, if we want to get to the 'Temple',"

The man shrugged before sighing, "lead the way"

Summer turned around, rolled her eyes and set herself off north.

* * *

Tai slammed his leg into a beowulf's head, using it as a launchboard to start pounding on it's packmate, hitting it right, then left, before coming down with his leg mounted blade over it's head. Turning to the last remaining one, he began to run in before a red slash tore it in two as a woman, with a flare for the dramatic no doubt, locked eyes with him.

"You could've helped earlier you know"

"I could, the Temple's this way"

"Damn, not even a hello,"

The woman ignored him, taking off north, trusting he'd keep up.

As the two reached the strange stone structure, the first thing they noticed were the pedestals, each with a crystal atop it, saturated in different hues matching another, two were missing already.

Without hesitation, the woman picked up the darkest red she could find before leaning back on a pillar while her partner panted his way into the clearing.

He stood, hand on knees for a few seconds, gasping for air while his partner looked over her new prize.

Just as he was catching his breath, two figures emerged from the woods, one waving their arms yelling "Tai!".

As Summer jogged up, the man with her looked to the crystal before walking up and taking the matching one from the Pedestal.

"Hey Rae, it's the red one right?"

"Have you suddenly contracted colour blindness?"

"Love you too,"

The shirtless man moved into the circle the four had inadvertently created.

The shirtless man began, "So what? We just move our way north?".

'Rae' stood up straight and moved down off the raised platform, "it would seem so, with the low Grimm levels it should be eas-"

"Do not finish that fucking sentence!" Summer blurted out, causing everyone, including the newly recovering Tai to stare, "Have you guys never heard of jinxing, jesus,"

"What's a jesus" Tai began before Summer shoved her hand over his mouth.

"We'll walk north, fine but for the love of god don't jinx me on this"

The woman across gave her a death stare "don't be childish,"

Summer merely shook her head, "nope, it'll happen now, just watch and see"

Next to her, Qrow's shit eating grin was so big it was almost audible.

* * *

Tai went crashing through the treeline, skidding along the floor before scrambling to his feet to continue running. Behind him Summer, Raven and Qrow came running full force out of the treeline ahead of a crashing sound, swiftly revealed to be a massive Deathstalker charging after the four.

The final location was only a small ways off from the four, and they could probably make it soon if they kept running, the giant Scorpion Grimm on their heels incentivised keeping pace as much as the former.

"I fucking told you!" summer yelled, catching up to Tai, who was definitely not the fastest of the four.

"Run now, talk later," Raven yelled back.

Summer's eyes widened before pulling Tai to the side, causing the Grimm to turn on a dime after them.

"Good news! It's only after Tai!"

"Good?!"

Raven groaned.

Summer continued stringing Tai along the clearing, the deathstalker taking potshots at the two with its tail. "You two! Take the relics to the final location, we'll lose this fucker!"

Tai would've responded had he not been about as athletic as a chicken wing, and had not been running full pace.

Raven didn't argue, grabbing her brother and jetting onwards, despite all appearances, common sense or common knowledge, she had no plan. A deathstalker that could quite easily kill both the young huntsman was right behind them and she had not even the barest semblance of a plan, so she did the first thing she could think to do, and threw Taiyang.

He soared through the air like an out of breath, giant, golden dove before lodging into a branch as summer turned around unsheathed Beta Memoria, jumped, and realised she had no clue what she was doing, so she fell back on the most basic instinct she could recognise, when in doubt, go for the eyes.

Cracking Memoria in helf they hit a stiff membrane around the eye, barely gaining a scratch before one of the pincers came down, barely missing her as she jumped away. As she ingraciously dismounted from the creature, its tail batted her along the clearing, causing her aura to take the brunt of the damage when she smacked through the trees. As she lunged out it's tail speared forwards into the treeline, and then she woke up in the infirmary.

* * *

Taiyang wasn't the most athletic person in what he'd presumed to be the team, at least he was the worst at running for his life, or untangling himself from the treeline. As he saw the only friend he could claim get smacked through more than one tree, the Grimm refocused on him reeling back.

And then a silver light punctured through its tail, slicing it cleanly off before going though the rest of the creature.

Blinking to get the sunspot out of his eyes he detached himself from the treetop just in time to see Summer standing leaking silver fluid from her eyes, eyes that focused in on him, scanned him up and down before opening their mouth to speak silently, before the puddle of silvery grey evaporated and she collapsed.

Wasting no time, Tai threw her over his shoulder and took off after his partner.

When he'd made it, the headmaster (seriously? He looks thirty) wasted no time ushering her off into the infirmary before taking out a tablet and looking over footage of the fight, pausing at the deathstalker's own death. "Mr Xiao-Long, would you and miss Rose meet me in my office after she awakens, actually, after the Team announcements, i will have to discuss this with you both,"

"Uh, Yes sir"

"Oh and please do not mention this event to anyone until this discussion, i would very much like to get this event straightened out before rumours start flying,"

Tai nodded and Ozpin began walking towards his office, muttering something about chess.

* * *

When Summer awoke the first thing she noticed was the clinical smell that made her feel uneasy, the second was the bandages over her eyes, when she'd reached up to remove them a voice had called out not to, that her eyes needed rest unless she wanted them to be permanently damaged, as they were her only pair she'd put up with the bandage, and her partner being called to guide her around the school, even if he'd been grumbling all the way. She'd only recognised the hall by the clack of her shoes on the marble, even if the number of anxious children muffled it slightly, while teams began being called up, OXFD, TRCH, PYRO, and more being called, alleviating the tension when people finally got confirmation.

"Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao-long, Raven Branwen and Qrow Branwen," as the four walked up to the stage, Tai smiled at Summer before realising she wouldn't have seen it and focusing on Ozpin, "You will be team STRQ, lead by Summer Rose"

Qrow could swear she gripped his arm tighter than before.

* * *

AN: man, I was thinking about how to explain the whole silver eyed Warriors dealio, turns out my brain just decided on it, then told me to write it in the only way people wouldn't get that explanation. go me


	6. Chapter 6: Blink of an Eye

Tai took over from Qrow while the two walked up to Oz's office, the twins had taken the opportunity to claim parts of the room for themselves.

"So… why does the bossman want to see us?"

"Sum, are you forgetting the shit you pulled out in the woods?"

"...like getting catapulted into enough trees to build a small cabin?"

"You actually don't remember do you"

"I'm fairly sure my damn back does, it's gonna be fixing for a week"

As the two reached to top of the lift, the face looking back from across three empty coffee cups and a desk that had it's keyboard worn into having finger grooves. The man across smiled slightly though Summer couldn't see.

"Ah, it's very good to see both of you"

"Ha"

Ozpin grimaced, "my apologies Miss Rose"

Tai immediately knew that if the two would gradually descend into chaos if he let the smalltalk develop and took one for the team, "You wanted to see us sir"

"That I did Mr Xiao-long, if you would both take a seat"

Tai guided Summer to hers before sitting down opposite Ozpin.

"Now, i would like to preface this, long ago there were stories about silver eyes warriors who could kill Grimm with a glance"

Tai's eyes widened, "oh, i see where you're coming from"

Oz continued unperturbed "I was under the impression this was just a myth or legend, but it appear otherwise, Mrs Rose"

"Ok, first question, what the fuck are y'all on about"

"Language"

"English, Second it's hard enough for me to hear you as is and you start talking about legends?"

"Hmm, you don't remember yesterday?"

"My back does"

"Yes i heard, after that,"

"Fuck all"

"Well, when you're able i can arrange for you to see the footage, but right now, i need both of you to know that you may have just found an incredible weapon for combating the grimm,"

Summer was smirking "bow down and worship the slayer,"

Ozpin chuckled, "Mr Xiao-Long, could you escort your leader to the dorms, i've got the hallway camera on my monitor and your teammates appear to be constructing a perimeter,"

"Yeah, that sounds like Raven", Tai sighed, raising from the chair, taking Summer by her shoulder, leading her out.

* * *

"We have a blind person here and you put tripwire around the room!?"

"You ain't blind"

"Not the thing to focus on Q"

Summer stood in the doorway, arms crossed, while Tai tried to disarm the mine the twins had placed at the door.

"I don't see what you're so angry about, it's a perfectly reasonable preventive measure"

"We are in a school!"

Tai levered the panel off before turning to Raven, "Red wire or Blue?"

"Blue,"

Tai clipped the wire before a click sounded and the lights went off.

"Ok, new rule, no non-weapon explosives in the room"

Summer walked along the line of beds, chose the first one she felt and jumped onto it.

"Sum it's six"

"World cold and hard, bed warm and soft"

* * *

The first thing Summer did when she woke up was take off the bandage over her eyes and blinking around the room, it was different than she'd expected, clean white walls with four beds equally spaced apart from each other, Raven and Qrow had immediately taken both ends of the room, as far from each other as possible, Tai was next to Raven, virtually falling off the bed. In his spread eagle position. Checking her scroll it was 6am, so she levered herself up and into the shared bathrooms, folding her clothes and uniform on the chair before stepping into the cubicle.

Half an hour later she stepped out, dried herself off and put on the slightly humid uniform she'd prepared for herself, fastening the cloak to her shoulders she opened the door- into the same scene she'd left before realising it would be 6.30 when classes start at 9. After about 15 minutes of nothing she'd decided it was useless waiting, especially around her team comprised of one half snorers. Resigning herself to her fate, she walked out of their room, after checking for tripmines.

Making her way down to the Cafeteria, it was sparse, only two students, upperclassmen by the looks of them, were even there, The two were definitely third-years, the sheer volume of Combat Theory and what she assumed to be well worn history text books books strewn about would've confirmed that. One of the two was scribbling illegible notes in one of the books while the other stopped them from being flung to the side while he used both hands to write. The green haired one was surrounded by about twelve mugs and a thermos while his partner, blonde with bags under her eyes so deep it looked like she hadn't slept in a week (and if this was how her partner acted at six in the morning she probably hadn't), had obviously at one point given up the idea of ever getting any rest.

Summer sighed, cut her losses, realised that she had a good hour before Tai woke up knowing his track record and walked over to the two

* * *

It had been two hours until her team found her in the cafeteria, sitting with some third years. They turned out to be half of team GOLD, Glynda and Oobleck respectively. Before they'd dragged her off to find their classes, which went about how she'd expected them to go, school was school, even if your geometry involved dust explosions. Actually, she'd been surprisingly adept at that class, certainly beyond Tai, who spent most of the lesson stuck on the first set of questions they'd been given, and Qrow, who was definitely asleep.

The day itself had passed relatively quickly, they were back in their dorms by four with nothing to do, which is the determined point at which Taiyang Xiao-long fucked up.

It had all started with Tai sitting on his bed and realising he didn't know all that much about his teammates, hell, on the bullhead Summer's seemed content to let him blaber away, dodging or giving minimal answers about her life, and Taiyang 'doberman of people' Xiao-long wasn't about to let anyone get away with that.

Family became a taboo subject in the team, the twins were tight lipped in their entirety, often completely avoiding questions if they could, and giving half answers if they couldn't, Summer would give an excuse about her life not being all that exciting, but would only willingly talk about when she was fifteen onwards, and Tai did them all the courtesy of not asking after the first punch.

* * *

Over the year everything seemed to blend together, like a smoothie made of stress, School work mottled together and lessons were the same, once the novelty of being at beacon had worn off, there was little to it other than routine, the only part of their lives that required work was the twins, but Tai'd put a stop to their loner nonsense within the first term. Ozpin rarely spoke to the team personally, and to summer this was more of a surprise given how glad he was to find a new 'Weapon'. She'd spent every break and holiday at beacon, in fact, Tai was the only one who ever went back home to patch, Qrow and Raven were good company.

Even their first time shadowing huntsmen went about as they had expected, destroying a nest of King Taijutsu, even if the huntsman they were shadowing was… less than orthodox -

"It's just Taijutsu, not exactly code red there" Qrow whined out during the trek, their Huntsman/Assessor gave a short snort.

"Is that confidence or arrogance?"

"Confidence,"

Summer had been quiet the entire trip, only actively speaking when necessary, though the thing they all had noted as odd was ho she'd left her cloak back at beacon, and not a single one of them were buying the 'it's a hot place' excuse, they'd seen her wear that cloak in forty degree heat before, this wooded area, mostly covered in shade, was definitely not the most strenuous situation, so it was fairly obvious to her tram what to do. Wait until she fell asleep and conspire behind her back.

After she'd began muttering in her sleep as usual, the three, or two and a very tired raven, began.

"Alright, i'm placing my cards down on the table, he could be her dad,"

"Her last name's Rose Tai,"

"Could be her mom's maiden name"

Qrow rubbed his eyes.

"They look nothing alike, besides, he would have recognised her"

"Maybe they're not on the best of terms, you don't know"

Raven rolled over to face the boys, scowling, "Her father's name is Polu, it's her only contact besides us, now let, me, sleep,"

"Ok but that just makes this even more intriguing", by this point tai was ready to bring out a flipchart. Raven groaned, realising that she wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

"Qrow, what do you think, c'mon"

"I think you're an idiot"

"Wrong answer buddy, try again"

"I think it's none of our business?"

"Two strikes, third and i tear up all your pants."

"Tai, this is stupid-"

"And you're out," he swung an invisible bat, "get on the bench Q"

"Both of you are so stupid,"

"I have yet to see you come up with anything dearest Raven"

She groaned, "old teacher, acquaintance, anything, it's in the past, it doesn't matter"

"Boo, think original"

"no"

It was quite funny in hindsight that their peer huntsman, one Nicolas Arc, who was supposed to be keeping watch, was more paying attention to them, than the forest around them. So Polu had a kid, seventeen years ago, he knew he'd been away for a while but not _that_ long, still, he had a job to do, and listening to the four trainees conspire ate into that, and so, he got back to watching.

The next morning they'd set out after packing up, the nest was supposedly close by. Summer had gone ahead, carving out a path forward with Beta Memoria separated, or as she said, 'Bitchin' machete mode', when he was sure they were out of earshot Qrow turned to Nicolas, "So what's the deal with you and Rose?"

Tai immediately bust into a coughing fit before clamping his hand around his teammate's mouth, "please excuse Lord Qrow the socially maladjusted,"

"Lord?" Raven deadpanned

Arc just laughed, and declined to respond.

* * *

The Taijutsu weren't difficult to dispatch, a few students had found them opponents during initiation, and a year of training had upheld them since, coupled with a career huntsman didn't exactly do much to dissuade this proficiency.

When the team was embarking onto the bullhead, Summer was asked to stay behind by their huntsman, she came back smiling, the entire team declined to actually ask her what he'd wanted to talk about, conspiring between them that it was some secret, perhaps tragic backstory. Not a single one thought that he'd just wanted to share some photos of his kids to a family friend.

* * *

Oz rubbed his eyes as a veritable auditorium of empty mugs stared back at him from his desk, resigning himself to his fate, he opened his scroll, typed in the group password and sighed as he sent a message. About fifteen minutes later a lark smacked into his window. Sighing, he opened it as it flew inside and frantically morphed and grew into a man in his late thirties, cracking his back he looked at Ozpin down his nose while working his human joints. "I was with Bleu, any more 'emergency missions' and i feel like i'm on the couch" he complained, shaking out his arms, clicks emanating from them as gas escaped the joints.

"Believe me Mr Lark, this was my last call, but i assume you'd like to get to the meat of this mission?" Oz asked, seeing the man nod he continued, "I recently obtained a new student, she has quite a lot of potential, as well as... abilities, that could be beneficial to us,"

"Shit she's not, you know?" the man mimed flares around his eyes to emphasise his point.

"No, she is not a maiden, however these abilities do seem somewhat supernatural," he took a last sip from the final mug before his desk was completely covered save for his keyboard, "I am simply concerned about her background, or lack thereof, she does not seem to have any records before two years ago, the first of which being an appliance for Citizenship, but being that she is from a small village, this was not investigated, however, following these developments and how little conventional tactics are returning," oz stayed silent waiting for his compatriot to connect the dots.

"...you want me to fly over and check it out myself?"

"Very good, i'll send you a list of contacts and… relevant, ahem, witnesses to speak to"  
"How urgent is this"

"Not foreseeably"

"Well, i'm going to fly halfway across the city, then get on this when i can find a moment"

"Thank you, Mr Lark," almost as a tack on she said, "and we'll talk about your 'retirement' when you get back,".

As the bird flew out of his window, he contemplated just how ludicrous the information he was brought could get, Summer, after all, was just a normal girl.

* * *

When STRQ returned to their room, summer immediately went or the cloak, attaching it to her shoulders again, before virtually throwing herself toward the beds, they all immediately collapsed unto their beds, Raven and Summer were practically asleep before they hit the sheets, and Tai followed soon after, leaving Qrow awake. In fact, he was far too awake. Looking across the room, his own partner always slept like a switch had been flipped, and Tai had wasted not time in showing just what lengths he'd go to get extra sleep under him, this had basically amounted to Summer calling him a fatass and threatening her father's training reigime (whatever that was), but he never took Raven as the lights-out type, she always acted weird, like she was ready for, and expected, everything to go wrong at any moment. Sighing he plugged some headphones into his scroll and began piping some Minstralian pop into his ears, a guilty pleasure if there ever was one.

He was fairly relaxed, bobbing his head slowly before a male, strangely accented voice came from his scroll.

"Mpop Curly Q? Never took you for the type,".

It was a fair observation that he almost chucked the device out the open window.

 **AN: you wouldo nothe believevery how long it took t** **o write that end scene. But sorry for being away so long, college started kicking my ass, but i got some free time and started work on chapter 8, per my system, that meant i had to post this. But oh boy, do i have something in store for you next chapter.**

 **Let's just say that Epsilon's not alone in his 'predicament'.**

Have a good one

-Yackronin


	7. Echoes of Trust

Sky Lark, age 38, Beacon alumni, professional hunter, husband and member of one of the most secret organisations on remnant flew through the air. He loved the feeling of air below the wings Oz gave him. Currently though, this wasn't a pleasure flight, he was currently on the way over to the west of Vale to meet with two people, one, was a Mr Polu Rose, marked as the ,adoptive, father of Summer Rose. The other was one Nicolas Arc, who would be acting as a guide through the region's forests, Oz wouldn't accept anything but a thorough sweep. Perfectionist bastard.

Sky landed about a mile away from the village before turning back, it wouldn't do to have someone see real magic afterall. Walking down to the gates, he slid through the opening, it looked like a wall had been erected around the community, obviously to keep out the grimm, with a populus so full of huntsmen, retired or not, the sheer mass of aura would likely attract many.

Pulling out the map on his scroll he found the home marked as Polu's residence and knocked on the door. There was no response, he was about to knock again when a light voice came from behind saying 'he's not there you know,".

Turning around stood the profile of his guide to be, one Nicolas Arc.

Sky had taken pains to find a reliable huntsman, one who could very well keep a secret depending on what they found, Arc, being one of three huntsmen in the area, and knowing the terrain already, had been the obvious choice. The man had three children already, with a fourth on the way, meaning that if it came to it, blackmail was on the board, he was also an Arc, meaning that the old 'family honour' tactic would probably be reliable against him.

"Is he not?" sky began, poking for answers passively.

"Mission i'm afraid, some town further in having Grimm troubles,"

"Aren't they always?"

Arc chuckled, "you're telling me," he looked Sky up and down, as if assessing him, "you wouldn't be Mr Lark would you?"  
"Afraid so, Arc?"

"A pleasure" Nicolas rolled his shoulders, "if you're here, and Polu's not, i've got to buy myself some time before i get back and get swamped by the girls, and that patrol's looking pretty enticing,"

Lark looked for a minute before hopping down the steps from the house, "what a coincidence, i'm on a tight schedule and need this done as soon as possible,"

Ark's eyebrow raised before motioning the way to the village entrance, as if he hadn't just come through it, "shall we,"

"I believe we shall," and with that, Lark & Ark began their 'Patrol' through the forests.

* * *

It was nearly three hours, and twenty Grimm, later when they found something that Lark helpfully identified as 'something big and important'.

The strange metal object had made a crater in the ground, likely from impact, and the forest looked to have grown over the object, making it appear mangled, although it could easily have also been mangles by the aforementioned impact. It almost looked otherworldly. As the two approached the section that looked most like a door, they noted how the undisturbed flora had adapted and grown around it, in one case, a tree had almost grown over a section that was smaller than the rest, probably the front. When the two came near, Arc prepared to lever the door open with his axe, Whiplash, but as he put his hand over the metal to get a firmer grip, it slid to the side, with a scraping noise of metal on metal, as if it hadn't been put togethr well, or had been mangled slightly.

As the door opened, the inside seemed to sputter and attempt to self-illuminate before all that was able to light was a single bulb in what looked like a medical pod, that being said, the rest of the machinery inside began to beep and function. Sky had brought out a scroll, and in between taking notes of the structure, he took pictures to verify it's existence.

Arc, meanwhile walked over to what looked like a human sized tank filled with a viscus, foul smelling, if clear, liquid. He slowly reached out and put his hand on one of the panels, that seemed to be marked with a red cross?

No sooner had he placed his hand over it however, than a mechanical arm sprung from the board and speared him through the arm, extracting blood from his arm and retracting back inside. The gasp of pain cased Lark to run over and see the incision, through clean.

And then they heard the voice.

It was female, impartial, like there was no emotion inside it as it said 'Initiating Flashclone Sequence Theta,"

As the two hunters looked at each other, arc clutching his arm where the needle had dug in, they saw something drop into the vat, and then they saw it rapidly develop. Within a minute a foetus floated within the tank, but with something wrong, a mechanical oblong device seemed to distort it's head shape, after three, it looked like a newborn, the strange growth now entirely immersed within the head. Lark's eyes widened before frantically toying with the controls, though they were written in another language.

"'Come on! Stop!"

The arm came out again, and injected something into the infant before liquid began to drain from the tube.

Not wasting any time, Arc picked up the child, and the two made an expedient retreat out the room and back into the forest, where it was still light.

They both stood a few meters back, breathing raggedly.

"What, the fuck,"

"My thoughts exactly, Mr Arc,", he turned to his guide, now holding a small human in his arms, "i think, that it may be best if we return to the village,"

Arc nodded silently, more focused on the child in his arms, and how he was going to explain this to Juniper.

* * *

"Start explaining, Now!" Qrow was glaring down at his scroll from the roof of the dorms, he'd climbed out the window to find a more secluded place to talk.

The voice coming from his headphones cackle "C'mon Q, you've seen semblances before"

Qrow narrowed his eyes at the device, half sure the camera would pick up his change in expression, "i meant _who_ are you,"

The scroll went silent for a few seconds

"Well?!"

"...Dude, i'm just waiting for you to use process of elimination here, think about everyone you've been near in the last twenty four hours,"

It wasn't an especially demanding request, they'd only just got back from their mission before most of the team fell unconscious. Let's see, there was Arc, but his semblance was Aura manipulation, so this wasn't him, apart from the bullhead crew the team had only been near Ozpin when delivering their report, then they'd been by themselves.

Qrow's eyes looked to the side "Oz?"

"Holy shit no! That dude weirds me the fuck out, Smile and nod, smile and nod, jesus. I'm half convinced what we gave the report to was a human sized bobblehead," as the voice rambled on Qrow had trouble moving past the beginning of the sentence.

"We"

"What?"

"You said we"

"I guess so, your point"

"There were five people in that room,"

"Oh my god, is he finally gonna get it! It's a miracle, hallelujah!"  
"Alright, so you're on the team, and you're definitely not raven, so Tai, how's it going,"

 _Checkmate you blonde bastard_

"Oh my fuck," Qrow began to smirk before he heard the sound of a disconnect from his scroll

"Hello? Tai"

He heard a scramble across the stones that made up the dorm building's walls before a familiar brunette pulled herself onto the roof.

"How the _fuck_ did you get Tai from that!"

* * *

Ozpin sat back in his chair doing what he loved most, watching teenagers fight. Although he'd not got sound, he was very much invested in Mr Branwen's backing away from his leader.

As he smiled, watching the younger branwen likely being threatened with physical violence, the scroll at the edge of his desk began to ring, tone telling him it was Sky, he picked up.

"Mr Lark, it's rather late fo-"

"Holy shit, Ozpin, you're not going to believe what happened!"

"Calm down Mr Lark, would you care to explain, slowly, and while you're actually breathing,"

A few slow breaths came from the end of the line, "Alright, let's start from the ominous metal ruin,".

Oz tried his hardest to resist a sigh, before rubbing his eyes, and pressing the button beneath his desk that signaled his immediate need for coffee, it was going to be a long night after all.

* * *

Raven Branwen was a patient woman, some had even called her merciful, at least, in relation to the tribe's leader. Something raven was very used to was being woken up because of something Qrow had done, he was practically an alarm running on stupid and bad luck. Being woken by her team leader tearing Qrow a new one outside the window however, was not pleasant.

Tai, was still asleep and probably wouldn't wake for anything less than a full assault on beacon. This left here with two options, go outside and join the yelling match, probably shutting them up and allowing her to get sme sleep at 12.30, or lie and listen to crow's chewing out, she had no idea what they were arguing about but it would still probably fun.

"I mean, c'mon man, Tai!"

"What?, it's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."

"Come the fuck on, you think he'd go inside it"

On second thought, maybe she didn't want to hear this.

* * *

Nicholas Arc finally got some rest from the vicious tongue-lashing he'd been given by his wife in between flustered explanations of why there was an infant in his arms. He loved Juniper, Truely, but this was a more stressful situation than a simple patrol should've been. Looking down at the thing in his arms he added another mental tally, three children, wonderful.

The child's heterochromic eyes stared back at him. Nicholas hummed to himself, perhaps when he was older he'd get some coloured contacts, would avoid staring if the boys eyes were both blue after all, besides, being that neither he nor Juniper had deep purple eyes in their family, it would probably put to rest some rumours.

Still the child needed a name, and in the interest of not being gutted by his own father for not choosing a family name, he opened up the old family tree and began tracing back along the branches, 'Aurem', 'Gris', oh god most of these were terrible. Tracing back some more he finally found one that wouldn't end in a legally changed name the day he turned eighteen.

Sounding it out, he thought he liked it.

"You're going to give me such a hard time, you know that Jaune?"

The child only gargled

"Man, Polu's gonna call bullshit so hard,".

* * *

 **AN: yes, that's right, i'm not only alive, but introducing some more, ahem, fitting, AI into this. And who fits the aspect of trust better than everyone's favorite empathetic blonde.**

 **Yes i did chose to make Sky Lark's father have the same name just so i could make a pun, but i still stand that Oz even says that the power to turn people into birds is rather 'trifling' so why wouldn't he have more scouts, even if this one is looking forward to retirement, can't take risks when you've got a son on the way after all.**

 **Yes Epsilon Summer's techno-possession is -technically- not a semblance but try to explain to Q T and R why their leader can speak through their Scrolls without one.**

 **Ok but seriously Qrow listens to Mpop and you can't convince me Mistral isn't just Japan but Wilder.**

 **Finally: next chapter is coming sooner than this one did holy shit wow, but yea. The way i do this chapter 9 will be done writing up soon and i'll post 8 for y'all**


	8. Fear, Happiness and a Freudian Slip

Chapter 8

Qrow and Summer climbed through the open window, coming face to face with their black haired teammate, her eye twitching more than a little. Summer began smiling guiltily while Qrow, recognising the look, began to climb back out the window before his partner grabbed him by the shirt collar, if she had to live through this then he would too.

"So, mind telling me why, at one in the morning, then all reasonable people are trying to sleep, you two decided it would be the best time to climb out of a _window_ to argue"

"Okay Rae, before you say anything, Summer started it,"

"Fuck off birdbrain, as leader i'm exercising the right to say it's your fault"

Oh lord they were getting into it again.

" _Both of you, shut up!_ " raven's eye twitched again, "while you were having your little spat on the roof, three separate people came into our room just to tell you to shut up,"

"Who were they?"  
"Not the thing to take away from that sentence Q,"

Summer looked at Raven, shaking her head, "Rae, i say this sincerely from the bottom of my heart, My bad,"

Her scowl only deepened, "just go the fuck to sleep"

"baby's first curse!"

"Shut up, go to sleep"

Summer groaned "Yes Tex,"

Raven and Qrow stopped, swiveling on summer.

"Who's Tex?"

* * *

Ozpin pinched the bridge of his nose, he doubted much magic survived in the modern world, excluding himself and _her,_ which made Mr Lark's discovery all the more intriguing, not quite worrying yet, but definitely intriguing.

On the other end, Sky was frantically transcribing the notes he'd taken onto his scroll to be sent to Oz when his scroll crackled to life from it's previous silence, a single message, Oz.

 **Ozpin:**

 _Starting now this mission is raised to level 3 priority, continue on course and speak with Mr Rose, send the coordinates to the VP and Capt. Ironwood._

Sky just shook his head, how very ozpin, no trace of emotion behind the messages.

He finished typing the information into the Guardian database, sent the coordinates to the current serving Vale Protector and the Captain before sighing, it's not as if a conversation with a fellow huntsman could be any more stressful than Arc's little discovery.

* * *

Polu rose was _big_ , not in stature, oh no, the man was 5'9, but everywhere he walked, he carried the confidence of a man that could kill you, knew it, and wanted you to as well. Still, he'd fought worse if it came to blows. He'd actually had to ask whether he was Polu, he'd been sent a picture of the student marked as his daughter, Summer, but that had proved redundant, there was no visible way that summer could be biologically related to her 'father', adoption was probable but no papers were in her file, as expected of someone who didn't legally exist until two years ago. Polu though, the man's dark skin carried more scars than his own and the blues and whites of his outfit were slightly faded and torn from use, Sky took note of the two pins on his shoulders, likely for keeping something in place, though it was currently missing, finally, he could cross off the possibility of oz's silver eyed people coming from Polu's side of the family, being that the man's eyes were a deep blue.

He'd invited him in with a smile, obviously formally, after he'd introduced himself as a member of staff at Beacon, which was technically true after all.

He'd decided to start with some simple openers, asking about Summer, to which he'd given a surprising amount of non-answers. Sky just sighed as he came to the important questions.

"Mr Rose, the real reason i've come here is due to your daughter's lack of existing records," Sky hated being formal, "it appears that before she turned fifteen, where we have her citizenship application, she has no trace of existing,"

Polu nodded and stayed silent for a few seconds, obviously considering his answer, "She's adopted, she applied as soon as we could,"

Yes, that would explain things somewhat, though only to a certain degree.

Polu adjusted himself in his seat, "if you're asking about her history i can answer anything you want Mr Lark,"

"Yes, thank you," Sky looked through the list of questions he'd been given by Oz "Can i ask you how she trained,"

"I tutored her myself,"

"For two years? And he's at the average level?" Sky raised his eyebrows.

"I'm a good trainer," Polu replied succinctly before adding, "though she could never use any firearms,"

"Oh? I believe Mrs Cinnebar noticed her unconventional weapon," he was lying through his teeth, he only barely knew that Cinnabar was the combat teacher.

Polu chuckled, "believe me, if i didn't pester her into learning a ranged option she'd probably just have built more knives into that thing,"

Sky noticed this change in attitude, Fatherly pride? Possibly.

"Would you believe she missed every shot against stationary targets," he leaned in, "using a sniper rifle, at twenty feet"

"That's… almost impressive"

"I know,"

Sky hummed, now that Polu was opening up he may be able to get some answers.

"You mentioned that Summer was adopted, may i ask if you know who her," he considered his next words carefully, "biological parents are,"

Though he obviously noticed he didn't seem to care, "i'm afraid not, and before you try, neither does she,"

"I understand, luckily i only need to ask one more thing, and even that's a bit extraneous to our topic,"

"Shoot,"

"Are you aware of the metal structure around four miles west of this village?"

Polu's friendly smile dropped.

* * *

Tai woke at 6.30AM. As usual, Summer would have been awake for half an hour and, being the weekend, Qrow likely wouldn't be awake for another two, and shuffled his way into the bathroom, almost knocking over the trough used for weapon cleaning in his early morning shamble to the shower.

The first sign something was wrong was when the drain wasn't clogged with brown-red hair.

The second was when he exited the shower, newly refreshed to see ¾ of STRQ missing.

* * *

Polu was getting twitchey on his sofa, the man had left an hour ago but he was still expecting visitors, likely two, Two, very important visitors. Hearing the knock at the door he steeled himself and opened it up.

Three people stood outside, a woman dressed in black, white and red, a boy, though tall and heavyset, no older than fifteen and _him_ , dressed immaculately, seeming more fitted for a business meeting, the man's eyes narrowed, examining Polu.

"Mr Xiong," polu began, trying to stop his hand from twitching, "how wonderful it is to see you again,"

he looked to his bodyguard, whose hand slipped away from her weapon before responding, "with all due respect Mr Rose, I think we should dispense with the pleasantries, you know why we're here,"

"I do,"

Mr Xiong nodded, "then lead the Way,"

The journey was in complete silence as Polu cut through the shrubbery in their way, leading the three to a familiar steel grey structure. Laying his hand over the entrance, the scraping of metal filled all their ears, though only the boy flinched. Leading them inside Polu searched for the panel Nicholas had told him about.

"Here," he said, one should always deal short and fast with Hei Xiong.

Xiong looked the device over before turning to his guard, "Morgan, place your hand on this cross,"

Without a second thought, she complied, only reacting when the needle shot out to retrieve the blood.

She looked over her arm, apparently, she didn't know what the place did, so Hei kept his men in the dark, good to know.

An emotionless female voice came over the entire structure, as Nicholas said it would, "Initiating Flashclone Sequence Eta and Flashclone Sequence Iota,"

The four watched transfixed as they watched a human, no, two, develop right in front of their eyes, coming to the size of an infant months post birth before the liquid in the tank drained and left the two lying on the floor before the access door opened, and the teenager picked the two up.

Hei Xiong turned to Polu, "Congratulations Mr Rose, you're two million Lien richer, but i expect you know what will happen if you tell anyone about our deal, no?"

"I understand Sir,"

"As long as we're clear," he turned to the boy and his guard, the two still focussed on the infants, "Junior, wrap them in your shirt, we're leaving,"

"Yes sir," both answered, Polu detecting a small amount of resentment in the boy's, Junior's, voice.

Hei stopped in the doorway, turning back to meet his eyes, "you know, you could come back to work, i'm sure Morgan would appreciate the help,"

Polu looked down, "i'm flattered sir but i'll have to decline,"

"A pity,"

And the three walked out, leaving Polu to ask what exactly he'd just done.

* * *

AN: it took a lot of thought for me to place Theta-Jaune in at this point, and i was thinking about cutting this and putting it later before i realised, Ruby Rose can get in at 15 on her eyes and one battle alone, Blake belladonna can get in with no (known) history of her past or any past actions, Yang was born just after STRQ's graduation. STRQ are in their second-third year right now. Thus a boy, who comes from a prolific family, to whom beacon has statues of, and who's transcripts virtually glow, why wouldn't they let him in, afterall, J's transcripts may well list him as 17.

Polu my man, one of the only OCs i actually thought out for more than just filling a role, esp with Vol 6 under way, oh well, this thing is already crazy non-canon.

See you later,

-Yackronin


	9. Truth Without Knowlege and vice versa

Qrow groaned, the three had decided that questions could wait until after food, and although Tai was definitely not able to turn down chow, he was also impossible to wake up before his body decided to. So, in all her leaderly wisdom and compassion, Summer left him sleeping while the three took a bullhead to Vale without him. And it had been good, they'd decided on a small coffee shop, unfortunate enough to become a huntsman haunt, to have the discussion in.

It had started well enough, Summer was being fairly open with them, more than they had been, but the table always came back to one subject, "Who's Tex?"

Summer blinked, "Not a clue,"

"Strange, regarding that Freudian slip of yours," Raven hadn't ordered anything, having her elbows on the table, leaning on it for support, mostly due to the lack of sleep any of them had gotten all night, even if Summer didn't seem to mind.

Summer just sighed and took another sip of her drink, swiftly followed by a small 'ah' as she burnt her tongue. She looked to the twins and sat in silence for a minute.

"Fine, but one of you's getting Tai, i'm not explaining myself twice,"

Checking his scroll, it was 6:50, Tai would have been up for 20 minutes, and then Qrow realised

"Not it!"

"Not it! Fuck!"

Qrow grumbled as he walked down the road, this grumble turned into a despaired moan however, when he saw the Bullhead station, pulling out his scroll he pulled up summer's contact and decided to let her in on the bad news.

The scroll rang twice before she picked up.

"Yello?"

"You want the good news or the bad news?"

"Whichever comes first you dumbass,"

Qrow looked over to the station, a large crowd had formed outside it, holding blue flags, a white emblem of claw marks over a wolf's head showing proudly over them. Still, this was a peaceful protest, it had to be after all, if it wasn't the Vale police would close in like vultures over them, and nobody wanted to give them the excuse to.

"The station's closed, White Fang protest outside, we're not getting back any time soon,"

"And the good news?"

"There was no good news i just wanted it to seem like you had a choice,"

"Oh you little shit,"

Qrow hung up before summer could get irate, or, more irate than usual before turning around and heading back.

* * *

Captain Ironwood had seen to the perimeter construction as soon as he'd got the message, and had attached the most competent men he had at his disposal to it, even if most of the men he'd assigned were combat oriented, he did need to apply for most of the R&D team after all, still, teams November and India would make excellent and trustworthy guards for the structure, and the research post built around it, and Dr Watts had a glowing recommendation alongside his rather impressive degree of study. They'd had to assign some 'Subjects' to use in testing with the structure after hearing Sky's story but the 'candidate list' there was rather shorter than others, and he'd taken Watts' advice, after all, offer a reduced sentence and many people would agree to anything.

* * *

Summer had taken the liberty of messaging Tai about where they were. In fact, if she really thought about it, this was a blessing in a fang shaped disguise, she wasn't exactly eager to let everyone in on the good old Retrograde Amnesia, and telling Qrow or Raven meant that Tai would find out, which meant that the rest of beacon may as well have got it on the loudspeaker. And because of the fang's useful little process she could think up who this 'Tex' was. It was obviously someone she used to know, she could use that, just call it a mistake,it would be easier if she could identify why she'd even said the name to begin with. Still, what's the best way to poison that well so they don't go information fishing? Family? No, Tai would pounce on that like a Beowolf. Old friend? Not big enough to avoid talking about. The ithit her like a ton of bricks, the simple solution that had been dangling in front of her, just claim it was an old ex. Maybe one that sounded or acted like Raven? Yea that could work, good outline she could patch up on the fly Tex, an ex-girlfriend she was embarrassed to talk about, big enough to justify apprehension, awkward enough to placate Tai and Qrow, and inconsequential enough that the worst outcome would be beacon knowing she was into women, and given how she and Tai had already bonded over how hot getting your ass kicked by a girl was, she was fairly sure that particular cat was out of the bag.

Perfect.

* * *

When Tai had gotten the message from Summer, it hadn't stopped him from boarding a bullhead down to Vale, the fang were blocking people going, not coming out, after all. Leaving the station, he tried not to make eye contact with any of the protestors, it just made him feel awkward being in the area. Back on Patch, there were about a hundred people, it was small enough that the ten or so Faunus who were there, everybody knew anyway. Here, things were bigger, and it made him just feel uneasy knowing he was complacent with no idea how not to be.

Still, he shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, he was here now, messaging Summer, he ducked into an alleyway to wait it out until he got a message back

When he received an answer of a coffee shop turned huntsman haunt about a mile from the bullheads he'd began his walk down.

* * *

About twenty minutes after Taiyang left the Station, the protest turned violent. Vale police were called in to disperse the protesters. Many fled, twelve were arrested. One Bik Taurus was offered a deal, apply for an assuredly safe test, and leave in two months or stay there for eight.

He couldn't help his people from inside.

* * *

Summer ws sweating, she'd thought she had at least until the protesters left to come up with a deeper history for this 'Tex', curse her mouth.

When Tai had entered the haunt, he'd drawn in a chair from another table and sat on it reverse, so the back was between his legs, before realising that doing that with a wide backed chair was a stupid decision and turned it round sheepishly while his teammates concealed their amusement.

When Tai had pulled his chair in, Raven motioned Summer to begin, and she sighed.

"Alright, last night, after chewing the shit out of crow for his utter stupidity,"

Qrow glared at her, offended.

"I may or may not have called Raven 'Tex',"

"You did," Ravn began to drink more of her horribly bitter coffee.

"Yes. Thank you for that"

"And you've been avoiding the question," added Qrow, leaning in.

" _Yes, thank you for that,_ " Summer repeated through gritted teeth, "anyway, i neglected to tell you because it's nothing, it's a Non issue and it means Jack shit,"

Raven and Qrow looked unconvinced and Tai, being asleep at the time, just looked confused.

"She was an ex of mine, you happy?"

Qrow's near ever-present shit eating grin grew three sizes as raven pulled out a wallet, slamming coins into his hand.

"Hold on, were you too taking bets on this!"

"Unbelievable, insubordination, betrayal, all within those closest to me,"

"I did nothing,"  
"You didn't know jack shit, Tai, you don't count"

Raven snorted.

Inside her head, summer gleamed. Mission accomplished.

* * *

F.L.S.S was overjoyed. Not only had the recovery team arrived but they were supplying excellent DNA for her director. Why, the one they'd brought was a near perfect case for Omega, even if they did seem to have some genetic anomalies, and even if some of the bodies had to be brought to different ages to accept the chip.

The sensor picked up a hand on the extractor and dutifully she drew blood from the man's arm before working again.

"Beginning Flashclone Sequence Omega,"

* * *

Watts was floored by the device, his first time viewing the machine it let the thing inside mature to a young child before releasing it. A shame the subject was distressed by the procedure.

"Grey, Fox, please escort subject T-1 out, and return him to vale, Mr Taurus your compliance has been noted,"

The man's protests were drowned out as he was removed from the structure, and Watts was left looking into the boy's black eyes.

Holding a microphone up to his mouth he began 'Subject T-2, male, approximately five years of age, eyes are black but still show function, procedure; Sequence Omega,".

Two scientists came to escort the child onto the on site labs.

Watts removed the microphone and checked nobody else was in the room as he removed a small black orb from his coat.

"Test one complete, subject shows no inconvenient abnormalities,"

A feminine voice came from the orb as it pulsated, "continue on course, ad what of your 'list'?

Watts smiled, "whittled down to a single candidate, my lady.

* * *

 **AN: two chapters in a day, le gasp. Anyone would think i likes writing this, foolish i know.**

 **I have a notebook full of the track as it pertains to AI, i was crossing between wiki pages looking to see which fragments fit best.**


	10. Rage, Deceit and Ambition

To Watts, it had taken far too long to receive permission for this experiment, he understood that they needed the prisoner's permission, but after he received this experiment he'd hand in his resignation and the Grimm would unfortunately rampage through the base, no doubt killing the test subjects and just so happening to remove the evidence of F-4's disappearance.

As he watched the girl grow within the tube, she reached perhaps her early teens before the liquid drained. If the boy, T-2, was indicative, she'd have innate ability, language, motor skills ect, just not knowledge.

As her orange eyes stared back at him he only smiled, she'd be perfect.

* * *

Captain Ironwood stared at the envelope on his desk, delivered by one of the premiere minds of the Atlesian Military.

"What's this?"

"A resignation letter, Captain." Watts stood proud, as always, very matter of fact.

Ironwood opened the letter and began reading, "Ethical Issues? You've not brought this to my attention as Director of this project before, in, what, four months,"

"I believed it was of little consequence until recently, sir, the straw that broke the DesertStrider's back and all,"

Ironwood looked down at the paper before taking a deep breath and raising his glance back to Watts, "I understand, you will be removed imminently, and Dr Poledina will be put in your position,"

"It's been an honour sir,"

"Likewise, may life treat you well,"

Watts smiled as he left the office.

* * *

Dr Geppetto Poledina walked into the structure, it was the first time he had done so without accompaniment of Dr Watts, as he reassured the woman that this procedure was harmless, even as the needle penetrated her skin, and 'Sequence Gamma' began, resulting in perhaps the youngest they'd seen yet, S-6. as S-5 was escorted out, he wondered aloud "why would it go through all this trouble"

* * *

As with many third years at Beacon, STRQ's was mostly Combat classes and training. Beacon was less exciting than the four had expected, but it was still a school, and by law, it was required to teach certain subjects, no matter how useless they may be to the life of a huntsman.

The holidays were coming up again, and it looked like STRQ's old ritual would prevail. Tai would go home for three weeks to visit his frankly ludicrously large family gatherings, Summer would go visit Polu for about a week and the twins would stay at Beacon, probably breaking into Summer's secret stache that she'd stolen from Daku of team GOLD, mostly as an apology for the party.-

"Why is Tai Stripping?!"

"Don't complain Rae, just enjoy the show,"

-She'd given summer a frankly ludicrous amount of alcohol and most definitely illegal substances if the plastic baggies they were held in were any indication. Between them, she'd given them to summer partly as a way to get Glynda off her back.

Summer twisted open a bottle of Ex Nihilo while the three were sat in their dorm, taking a swig before grimacing. Passing it along to Raven who handled it better than she had.

"Alright, i'll start, when i was fifteen my dad tried to get me to use a gun as my range, i missed every shot firing a sniper rifle at 20ft,"

Qrow snorted before taking the bottle from his sister.

"I discovered my semblance when Qrow was being a dick in hide as seek as a kid,"

Qrow finished the bottle before taking his turn, "Once i accidentally let a swarm of Arachne's into camp,"  
"How do you accidentally do that, curly Q?"

Qrow wiggled his fingers, "semblance"

Summer picked up the bottle before looking inside, "you know we were supposed to take swigs, right?"

"Huh?"  
"You dumb sack of shit,"

"Just go get more, you know damn well Daku will have more,"

"My alcoholic friends beside, you may want to lie down,"  
"Pfft, nah,"

"Qrow that bottle has a stopper, go lie down,"

"I'm fine,"

"100 proof," summer began reading off the side.

"God you two are insufferable,"

"No, No, that was per serving,"

"How many servings are in there, it's just one bottle?"

"Three apparently,"

Qrow started grumbling before he got up and began walking out of the common room

"But it's nothing,"

"Sure Curly Q,"

When he'd left earshot, summer reached under the communal sink and brought out two more bottles.

"Ok Rae, we're gonna do some defrosting, now get chuggin'"

* * *

Tai's first message from SRQ wasn't a 'we miss you' like he'd hoped, but a picture an obviously drunk Qrow had taken of Raven and summer passed out in the same bed, four bottles of Ex Nihilo, and he definitely knew summer only owned two, so she had stolen from Daku's stache, scattered around said bed.

He was almost impressed.

* * *

Gepetto had finally received permission, he entered the pod and traced back the lines of the tank backwards, until he found a dispensary, the inside holding a single chip. Removing it, he noticed the triangle carved into it's top, did they all have this? He wasn't about to dissect T-2 F-4 or S-6 any time soon to find out. As he examined it, a familiar female voice spoke "Delta Fragment removed, all fragments removed. Checking status,"  
Gepeto scrambled before pressing on on his recording device.

"Epsilon Alpha: Online. Epsilon Beta: Offline. Epsilon Delta: Offline. Epsilon Theta: Online. Epsilon Sigma: Online, Epsilon Gamma: Online. Epsilon Eta: Online. Epsilon Iota: Online. Epsilon Omega: Online. Confirmed. Entering standby"

Gepetto held the device on for a minute afterward in case she suddenly sprung to life again before shutting down the recorder.

The Captain had to hear this.

He quickly told his assistants that he was reporting back in person, taking S-6 as proof of progress as they left, the chip in a secure case.

After he left, nobody at that site survived a week.

* * *

First, came the Grimm. They thundered down the mountain and killed many of the guards on duty, F-4 went missing afterward and was presumed dead. T-2, or Adam as the researchers had taken to calling him, never forgave any of them for letting her die.

Then came the brotherhood. The grim were scary because of their numbers and ferality, but the brotherhood were organised, a radical sect of the white fang that had split off after Gira Belladonna came to power. They slaughtered every last human in the base. First Private Taurus walked through the corpses up to a room marked T-2, with the name 'Adam' scrawled underneath. they blew the door off its hinges with plastic explosive before he took the child away from the Massacre.

* * *

 **AN: Lucky break for Gepetto. Lucky break for Summer too, a lot of lucky breaks recently.**

 **Except for all those researchers but shh about those guys.**


	11. Outpost Alpha

Summer woke up in Raven's bed, feeling like utter shit, which, all things considered, was pretty good.

Then she realized the latter part of that sentence and taking inventory.

She was naked

She was in Raven's bed

Raven was also naked

Raven was splayed out on top of her.

Huh.

Score?

* * *

Dr Geppetto Poledina entered the Captain's office, ready to give his progress report, and the newest chip, to his superior, but the captain stopped him as he came in, proceeding to close the door without saying a word, sitting back at his desk, and laying a folder on the desk in front of him.

"Doctor," ironwood began, fingers knotted in front of him, "I was afraid this would be your last report, but apparently you removed S-6 to accompany you,"

"Yes sir,"

"Please, give the report,"

"Sir, we traced back the piping in the structure to a holding box, in which we found this," Geppetto placed the clear plexiglass box onto ironwood's desk, "it appears to be the same chips as are implanted during the embryonic stage, I believe we can examine it before returning it and progressing,".

Ironwood was silent for a second before motioning to the file on his desk.

When he motioned to it, Dr Poledina picked it up and read though the last few pages on Outpost Alpha.

'On 13/14/89 Outpost Alpha was attacked by Grimm and lost ten combatants, one researcher, and subject F-4

Survivors: four researchers, fifteen combatants'

He looked up at Ironwood, who nodded to read on.

He turned the page again.

'On 16/14/89 Outpost Alpha was attacked by a Brotherhood strike team and lost fifteen combatants, four researchers and Subject T-2.

The Structure central to Outpost Alpha was destroyed by explosives at the scene.

Survivors: None'

Dr Poledina put the file down on his desk.

"Fuck,"

"I'm afraid the General's reaction was more visceral, they missed a check in and our scout team returned the logs,"

"Fuck," Geppetto was wide eyed, trying to realise exactly what he'd just read.

"Doctor, i think it would be best if you took a break," Ironwood reached for the chip, "As the sole remaining researcher, S-6 and this will be under your care when you return,"

Gepetto just nodded.

"They are not to leave the capital from this moment forward out of fear for their safety, am I understood?"

"Yes sir,"

"You are dismissed doctor, i would recommend a vacation,"

Geppetto nodded as he stumbled out of his chair. Ironwood began making lab arrangements., and alerting those with a vested interest in the project.

* * *

Ozpin was rarely floored, the last time he could remember such was three years ago during STRQ's initiation, but the message he'd just received from James was horrific. According to specific updates he'd requested to keep track of the outpost it seemed to be an incredible find, maybe even a turning point in his secret war, especially if it was linked to Summer and her silver eyed warriors. But now? There were a handful of them, Mr Arc's Prodigy, which he'd elected to kept a secret from James, and the three from the base 'T-2, F-4 and S-6', and if they were extremely lucky, Summer and whatever they could eke out of the chip Dr Geppetto had brought.

And worse, the file listed a 'Grimm Attack', meaning that _She_ knew. Furthermore, if the reports were to be believed, Two had perished in the attack, leaving only S-6, who wasn't present at the time, as the last surviving subject.

Salem had just moved her pawn.

* * *

"Ok but what are we,"  
"Idiots, that's what you are,"

"Thank you Q, very helpful,"

Summer massaged her head while the two hungover partners got themselves some water.

"I'm just saying, Q, that now, there's a thing going on,"

"Yea, there is, and you're going to have to deal with it,"

"C'mon Q, help me out here,"

"I'm not talking about my sister's love life with you Summer, you're on your own,"

Summer Groaned.

* * *

Geppetto Poledina was spending his impromptu vacation in his home. The man had never dealt well with loss, and would usually dig himself into his work. Except here he had no materials, here he had paper, a pen, time and a need for distraction. So Geppetto did what Geppetto did best. And started thinking.

Outpost Alpha was destroyed, that meant all the miraculous technology within was damaged, likely beyond repair. Two of the three to come from it were presumed dead, and only S-6, who was less than a year old was the last one Atlas possessed. Their only other evidence of the project was a small chip, one that seemed to be crucial to whatever the structure was doing. Meaning that that chip was the most important thing in thieir posession. But if he followed the patern, it needed a body.

And Gepetto got to designing.

* * *

"You're just gonna run?"  
Summer looked to her partner and smirked

"Look, i;' not running, just taking a break, visiting my dad, and it'll give me time to think while i'm there. besides, it's not like some world shattering shit's going down right?"

"Remember what you said about Jinxing back in initiation?"  
"Damn, you're right, i'll leave my Scroll on,"  
"Still, you're gonna come back to this,"  
She sighed, "I know i am Q, but this will give both of us time to think, also tell Raven where i've gone, she's been avoiding me,"

"I noticed,"

"God you are just a font of fucking enthusiasm aren't you,"

"It's one of my most positive traits,"

She snorted, packing up her backpack, only; a few changes of clothes, Beta Memoria's maintenance equipment, and any valuables she didn't trust the twins with, inside.

"See ya bird brain,"

* * *

The flight took a day, as usual, by the time she'd made it her back almost snapped in protest of her ever moving again. Making her way through the village she stopped to steal a glance over at the Arc house, she swore one of these days Juniper would stop having children, but t'was not this day. Nor any day near apparently.

Taking a deep breath she knocked on Polu's door, hearing banging come from inside before a bathrobed Polu came to the door.

"Summer?"

"It's two in the afternoon,"

"It sure is,"

There was a beat as both attempted to take in the situation.

"You gonna let me in or?"

"Oh damn yeah"

He moved his way out the door frame as summer entered her 'childhood' home.

"Hey dad, you wanna get dressed?"

"Maybe,"

"Dad, please get dressed,"

Polu sighed.


	12. Tinfoil, Lies and distrust

Polu poured himself a cup of coffee, he hadn't expected summer to arrive for at least a week. Still, it was probably for the best. He did need to speak to her after all. Taking a sip he sat down at the table.

"Uh-oh,"

"What?"

"You've got the dad face on, what did I do?"

"I don't have a 'Dad Face',"

"Yes you do,"

" _Anyway,_ " polu said through gritted teeth before taking a breath, "do you remember Nicholas Arc?"

Summer narrowed her eyes, "i mean, my team shadowed him for a mission so,"

"And you didn't come to visit?"

"Off topic,"

"Right, shit, well, a few months ago a hunter claiming to be beacon staff goes with him to scope out the area, and Nick comes back with a kid, ranting at me about a metal building that stabbed him in the forests,"

"Are we sure he didn't just get high? I hear poppies are pretty common round here,"

"The kid kinda counters that one,"

"Not convinced but continue,"

Polu scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, same guy comes round here and begins asking some questions, mostly innocuous ones, says he'd making up for the lack of data in your file,"

"When i was in my second year?"

"I know right, but i played along for a bit," polu leaned in, " _then he began asking about a structure in the woods,"_

"You're sounding pretty, uh, tinfoil hat there,"

"Maybe so, but a week later Atlas sets up an outpost a few miles away, apparently they're 'lending a hand to Vale's outlying villages'," Polu's air quotes and mocking mimicry caused Summer's eyebrow to raise.

"Everyone goes about as normal for a while, then, about a month ago, Grimm go for the outpost, not the village, but the outpost, while they're reeling, Faunus radicals go in and massacre them a few days later and blow up the outpost,"

summer blinked, "well that escalated quickly,"

"Yeah, sure did didn't it, well your old man goes in and does some rummaging before atlas scouts can get to it, i found these,"

Polu took out a box, inside was what looked like shrapnel that had once been computer parts, but it wasn't like Atlas tech, it had too much personality, too little cold efficiency.

Summer picked up the mangled piece of tech, letting it fit in her hand, it weighed less than she thought it would.

"Look on the top," polu remarked as summer turned it over.

Doing so she saw letters, a few were either burnt off or had torn away in the explosion, it read 'C iron Indu tri s Me ic l Po'

"Huh, mind if i pocket this?"

"Go ahead, that thing's been giving me paranoia all week,"

"Ok but why would you tell me, literally any of this,"

"Two reasons, one, like it or not this is definitely connected to that beacon guy, and that links it to you,"

Summer grumbled as she tried to scrb some o the burn marks off the device.

"Two, do you remember where I picked you up?"

She stopped scrubbing.

* * *

Captain Ironwood, official Director of project Rebirth looked at Dr Poledina through his scroll, the man looked like he hadn't slept, eaten or even rested in the time he'd been given, instead he'd been working, obviously on the designs he had sent to the Captain. In retrospect, putting an engineer in charge of a Biochem secret project, lacking in any other high level staff, was probably a bad idea. On the screen were schematics for a humanoid android, one that would dwarf Atlas's current tech, all using the last chip they'd received from outpost Alpha.

"Explain to me, Geppetto, why instead of using your vacation for rest, restoring your faculties, maybe grieving or lost coworkers, you appear to have done _more work_?"

Geppetto just sighed, "just look at the design James,"

The captain just sighed, "Gepetto, this is like ancient Valean to me, what have you done here?"

"Well, you know how the Structure made bodies before implanting those chips inside?"

"I am keenly aware,"

"Well what if we made one, but lacking the ability to just make more skin and flesh bodies, we just use materials we _do_ have,"

Ironwood considered, the three did show proficiency, hell F-4 had been a prodigy that floored any test leveled at it-her with gusto.

"Perhaps, but this will be impossible for, well, _years_ doctor,"

"I am well aware,"

Ironwood shook his head, the lengths of paperwork that this would make made his head ache, "if you are sure Geppetto, is there a name for your requested Sub-Project?"

"Penny,"

* * *

Summer's hands glided over the metal, it as definitely computerised, the bare circuitry showing was evidence of that. She placed it down on the table, Polu was definitely asleep right now, so she wouldn't be interrupted. In all her wisdom, she knew this was a bad idea, but in the face of that same wisdom, she just said 'fuck it'.

Summer's mind soared from her body and into the device, causing said body to slump back in the chair while her digital mind traced around inside the device. It looked like an office building after a bomb had gone off inside, papers and machines scattered around inside, so she got to work, picking up one of the papers and got reading.

* * *

"Happy holidays,"

"How wonderfully generic of you,"

On the other end Qrow chuckled.

"You never told us what you celebrate back at home,"

"And i never will, see you back at Beacon,"

Qrow closed his scroll and reached for another bottle of whiskey from Summer's stache. GOLD had left a year before them but the stache still went strong, even left some gifts for anyone that could find them, Notes from Glynda, which had still not, and likely never would be found, about a metric ton of the most caffeinated drinks Bart could find, and enough alcohol and _ahem_ less legal substances, to put the entire academy into a coma from Daku, the three had placed about ten thousand Lien somewhere left unfound in memory of Daku's partner Lakipa who'd died on a mission in their third year.

The end result of this was students repeatedly searching for a ludicrous amount of money, illicit substances, notes and enough caffeine to eat the sun.

So far STRQ was the only one to find a piece of the stache, Daku's to be precise, and even then they'd only found the drinks.

Qrow was wholly detached from his teammate's ideas of romance, completely disinterested in anything Tai or Summer were doing and Violently disinterested in what his sister did with either of them.

He was content just to kick back and enjoy the shitshow.

* * *

Summer was hating the flight back, she'd gone from nothing to do to having far too much to do in about three weeks.

Her little shrapnel shaped project was sitting in her bag, waiting for her to continue re-organising it, she'd have to see Ozpin about that Atlas outpost and she'd have to talk with Raven and Tai. life just was not fair.

* * *

AN: I'm Back, and just in time for christmas. so how is everyone this fine evening, i just finished writing Chapter 13 and am steadily working my way to the end of the Epsilon Arc. speaking of, at the end of the Arc, i'll put up a strawpoll to vote over which AI gets the first dedicated chapter.

Have a good one

-Yackronin


End file.
